Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath Honest priorities (vv.4-6) Humble pride (v.7)

Transcription

1 S#1148 Amos 8:4-7 CW 421 September 30, 2007 PENTECOST 18 Stewardship 1 of 2 Pastor Mark A. Cordes Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath In the name of Jesus, the true Pride of every believer s heart, dearly redeemed of God: So often it s the little things that make the biggest difference. For example in last Sunday s paper was a picture of an old key, tagged Crows Nest Telephone. It sold at auction in England for $181,000. Anyone know why? It was not on the ship when it set sail April 10, As a result, lookouts could not open the [binocular storage] cabinet and had to rely on their eyes alone to help guide the ship through a treacherous and ultimately deadly ice field. 1 The Titanic was sunk by an iceberg seen too late. God only knows why the key was not on board. But note how our best efforts at security, such as keeping binoculars from passengers, can actually be deadly. Likewise, a good job and honest labor are blessings from God. But so is the privilege of worship. If our attitude toward worship is bad, it can lock out the blessings of hard work. We need the key to this cabinet, so that looking through the Holy Spirit s binoculars, we can not only avoid dangerous icebergs, but see the glorious horizon of life in love with God. A loving heart is the key because Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath, first with What a shock it was for me to get an F on my last sermon at Seminary. Not an F per se, but unsatisfactory to the good professor who had watched me miss one deadline after another until he gave back my paper with a note: Rewrite. See me this afternoon. I was so busy with part-time campus ministry, building furniture and starting a family. But whatever I had planned for that afternoon was out the window while I plunked away on a borrowed typewriter and cleared my outline and written sermon with Professor Gawrisch. I assigned you a festival text, he said, so that your classmates could see how one should be written. You wrote for any given Sunday. It s obvious to me you just wanted to get it done. He was right. All that was missing from my hard work was my heart. On this first of two Stewardship Sundays, I m praying the LORD will kindly renew our hearts with His very own Honest priorities. Otherwise, I fear my most recent article in our member newsletter, New Life News, may be sadly misunderstood. Some may read with tears, then try in frustration to work harder themselves while the binoculars stay locked in the cabinet. Others may ignore the key, selfishly neglect God s house, then go away and play like the band on the sinking Titanic. Our good and gracious God who gives us our time, talents and treasure wants just one thing. God wants our hearts. Too long I ve avoided preaching this Old Testament Lesson of law from Amos, a Minor Prophet with a major message. My professor s discipline and our own stumbling efforts to manage God s gifts of church building and budget indicate how much you and I need to take these words to heart: Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat? skimping the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat. The LORD was threatening national disaster by war and bloodshed along with eternal condemnation for hard hearts. This is the Great Physician s scalpel and breastbone saw for every pastor and Sunday School teacher, every Board for Lay Ministry and congregational member whether preparing a lesson or cleaning a toilet. If all I m doing is rushing to Git er dun, then it s not the Cable Guy I need worry about. We 1 Henry Aldridge, Associated Press, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Sunday, September 23, 2007, p. 2A.

2 may not think we re stealing from the poor or cheating with dishonest scales. But the LORD sees without binoculars what should have been in every sermon. He knows the Sunday School lesson the children needed that day. And He feels the offense of a poor visitor who finally gets up enough courage to come through those doors only to find that dead bugs along the floor boards poison his worship. Rather than carelessly neglect the LORD s house or tearfully try to fix this ourselves, this is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says through an Amos contemporary named Isaiah: In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength.o people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the LORD gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, This is the way; walk in it. Then you will defile your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, Away with you! He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows. The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel. In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the LORD binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted. (Isaiah 30:15,19-26 NIV) With the hope of heaven God gives Honest priorities in heartfelt love. Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath, in Why didn t they just pick the lock on the Titanic? It looks like an easy key. Maybe the seamen thought their eyes were good enough without binoculars. Maybe someone had an extra key in his pocket but didn t know it. With a tag like Crows Nest Telephone, do you think of a binocular cabinet? The right key in the wrong lock is like pride in the wrong thing: disastrous physically and spiritually. The God who gives us every good and perfect gift from above is dead serious about how we manage His time, His talents and His money. He wants us to link this tag to the heart of Christian stewardship. He says to His own chosen people of Israel: The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: I will never forget anything they have done. Pastors and teachers who do not repent of careless preparation, or lay members who walk away from church and forget about the Lord s house and Gospel ministry have pride in themselves like an unmarked key in their pocket. Life s last icebergs lie ahead. God wants to give His blessings far beyond. He does not want to have to Humble our pride in hell. God wants all people to be saved and to come into dependable knowledge of truth. (1 Timothy 2:4 MAC) He longs to be gracious to us and to show His love in action. So what did Jesus do the night before His crucifixion? Knowing full well that Judas would betray Him, Peter would deny Him, that all but John would forsake Him, Jesus took a towel and some water and washed the very feet on which they would run away. Then He said to His disciples: I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. (John 13:15-17 NIV) He gave His hands and feet to suffer God s judgment for our sins, in order to declare with kindhearted mercy: I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. (Hebrews 8:12 NIV) He washed away the sins of pride in ourself and gave Himself as the Pride of Jacob. Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath. Take Humble pride in God. Insert the key of Honest priorities at every opportunity whether in worship together, working at your job or volunteering at church. Heartfelt love from God above brings blessings here below for Jesus sake. Amen. For the study behind this sermon or for copies m.cordes@comast.net. New Life Evangelical Lutheran Church You can also call: Hear the sermon at County Rd F - Shoreview, MN 55126

3 S#1148 Amos 8:4-7 CW 421 September 30, 2007 PENTECOST 18 Stewardship 1 of 2 Pastor Mark A. Cordes Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath In the name of Jesus, the true Pride of every believer s heart, dearly redeemed of God: So often it s the little things that make the biggest difference. For example in last Sunday s paper was a picture of an old key, tagged Crows Nest Telephone. It sold at auction in England for $181,000. Anyone know why? It was not on the ship when it set sail April 10, As a result, lookouts could not open the [binocular storage] cabinet and had to rely on their eyes alone to help guide the ship through a treacherous and ultimately deadly ice field. 1 The Titanic was sunk by an iceberg seen too late. God only knows why the key was not on board. But note how our best efforts at security, such as keeping binoculars from passengers, can actually be deadly. Likewise, a good job and honest labor are blessings from God. But so is the privilege of worship. If our attitude toward worship is bad, it can lock out the blessings of hard work. We need the key to this cabinet, so that looking through the Holy Spirit s binoculars, we can not only avoid dangerous icebergs, but see the glorious horizon of life in love with God. A loving heart is the key because Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath, first with What a shock it was for me to get an F on my last sermon at Seminary. Not an F per se, but unsatisfactory to the good professor who had watched me miss one deadline after another until he gave back my paper with a note: Rewrite. See me this afternoon. I was so busy with part-time campus ministry, building furniture and starting a family. But whatever I had planned for that afternoon was out the window while I plunked away on a borrowed typewriter and cleared my outline and written sermon with Professor Gawrisch. I assigned you a festival text, he said, so that your classmates could see how one should be written. You wrote for any given Sunday. It s obvious to me you just wanted to get it done. He was right. All that was missing from my hard work was my heart. On this first of two Stewardship Sundays, I m praying the LORD will kindly renew our hearts with His very own Honest priorities. Otherwise, I fear my most recent article in our member newsletter, New Life News, may be sadly misunderstood. Some may read with tears, then try in frustration to work harder themselves while the binoculars stay locked in the cabinet. Others may ignore the key, selfishly neglect God s house, then go away and play like the band on the sinking Titanic. Our good and gracious God who gives us our time, talents and treasure wants just one thing. God wants our hearts. Too long I ve avoided preaching this Old Testament Lesson of law from Amos, a Minor Prophet with a major message. My professor s discipline and our own stumbling efforts to manage God s gifts of church building and budget indicate how much you and I need to take these words to heart: Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat? skimping the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat. The LORD was threatening national disaster by war and bloodshed along with eternal condemnation for hard hearts. This is the Great Physician s scalpel and breastbone saw for every pastor and Sunday School teacher, every Board for Lay Ministry and congregational member whether preparing a lesson or cleaning a toilet. If all I m doing is rushing to Git er dun, then it s not the Cable Guy I need worry about. We 1 Henry Aldridge, Associated Press, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Sunday, September 23, 2007, p. 2A.

4 may not think we re stealing from the poor or cheating with dishonest scales. But the LORD sees without binoculars what should have been in every sermon. He knows the Sunday School lesson the children needed that day. And He feels the offense of a poor visitor who finally gets up enough courage to come through those doors only to find that dead bugs along the floor boards poison his worship. Rather than carelessly neglect the LORD s house or tearfully try to fix this ourselves, this is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says through an Amos contemporary named Isaiah: In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength.o people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the LORD gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, This is the way; walk in it. Then you will defile your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, Away with you! He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows. The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel. In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the LORD binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted. (Isaiah 30:15,19-26 NIV) With the hope of heaven God gives Honest priorities in heartfelt love. Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath, in Why didn t they just pick the lock on the Titanic? It looks like an easy key. Maybe the seamen thought their eyes were good enough without binoculars. Maybe someone had an extra key in his pocket but didn t know it. With a tag like Crows Nest Telephone, do you think of a binocular cabinet? The right key in the wrong lock is like pride in the wrong thing: disastrous physically and spiritually. The God who gives us every good and perfect gift from above is dead serious about how we manage His time, His talents and His money. He wants us to link this tag to the heart of Christian stewardship. He says to His own chosen people of Israel: The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: I will never forget anything they have done. Pastors and teachers who do not repent of careless preparation, or lay members who walk away from church and forget about the Lord s house and Gospel ministry have pride in themselves like an unmarked key in their pocket. Life s last icebergs lie ahead. God wants to give His blessings far beyond. He does not want to have to Humble our pride in hell. God wants all people to be saved and to come into dependable knowledge of truth. (1 Timothy 2:4 MAC) He longs to be gracious to us and to show His love in action. So what did Jesus do the night before His crucifixion? Knowing full well that Judas would betray Him, Peter would deny Him, that all but John would forsake Him, Jesus took a towel and some water and washed the very feet on which they would run away. Then He said to His disciples: I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. (John 13:15-17 NIV) He gave His hands and feet to suffer God s judgment for our sins, in order to declare with kindhearted mercy: I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. (Hebrews 8:12 NIV) He washed away the sins of pride in ourself and gave Himself as the Pride of Jacob. Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath. Take Humble pride in God. Insert the key of Honest priorities at every opportunity whether in worship together, working at your job or volunteering at church. Heartfelt love from God above brings blessings here below for Jesus sake. Amen. For the study behind this sermon or for copies m.cordes@comast.net. New Life Evangelical Lutheran Church You can also call: Hear the sermon at County Rd F - Shoreview, MN 55126

5 S#1148 Amos 8:4-7 CW 421 September 30, 2007 PENTECOST 18 Stewardship 1 of 2 Pastor Mark A. Cordes Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath In the name of Jesus, the true Pride of every believer s heart, dearly redeemed of God: So often it s the little things that make the biggest difference. For example in last Sunday s paper was a picture of an old key, tagged Crows Nest Telephone. It sold at auction in England for $181,000. Anyone know why? It was not on the ship when it set sail April 10, As a result, lookouts could not open the [binocular storage] cabinet and had to rely on their eyes alone to help guide the ship through a treacherous and ultimately deadly ice field. 1 The Titanic was sunk by an iceberg seen too late. God only knows why the key was not on board. But note how our best efforts at security, such as keeping binoculars from passengers, can actually be deadly. Likewise, a good job and honest labor are blessings from God. But so is the privilege of worship. If our attitude toward worship is bad, it can lock out the blessings of hard work. We need the key to this cabinet, so that looking through the Holy Spirit s binoculars, we can not only avoid dangerous icebergs, but see the glorious horizon of life in love with God. A loving heart is the key because Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath, first with What a shock it was for me to get an F on my last sermon at Seminary. Not an F per se, but unsatisfactory to the good professor who had watched me miss one deadline after another until he gave back my paper with a note: Rewrite. See me this afternoon. I was so busy with part-time campus ministry, building furniture and starting a family. But whatever I had planned for that afternoon was out the window while I plunked away on a borrowed typewriter and cleared my outline and written sermon with Professor Gawrisch. I assigned you a festival text, he said, so that your classmates could see how one should be written. You wrote for any given Sunday. It s obvious to me you just wanted to get it done. He was right. All that was missing from my hard work was my heart. On this first of two Stewardship Sundays, I m praying the LORD will kindly renew our hearts with His very own Honest priorities. Otherwise, I fear my most recent article in our member newsletter, New Life News, may be sadly misunderstood. Some may read with tears, then try in frustration to work harder themselves while the binoculars stay locked in the cabinet. Others may ignore the key, selfishly neglect God s house, then go away and play like the band on the sinking Titanic. Our good and gracious God who gives us our time, talents and treasure wants just one thing. God wants our hearts. Too long I ve avoided preaching this Old Testament Lesson of law from Amos, a Minor Prophet with a major message. My professor s discipline and our own stumbling efforts to manage God s gifts of church building and budget indicate how much you and I need to take these words to heart: Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat? skimping the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat. The LORD was threatening national disaster by war and bloodshed along with eternal condemnation for hard hearts. This is the Great Physician s scalpel and breastbone saw for every pastor and Sunday School teacher, every Board for Lay Ministry and congregational member whether preparing a lesson or cleaning a toilet. If all I m doing is rushing to Git er dun, then it s not the Cable Guy I need worry about. We 1 Henry Aldridge, Associated Press, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Sunday, September 23, 2007, p. 2A.

6 may not think we re stealing from the poor or cheating with dishonest scales. But the LORD sees without binoculars what should have been in every sermon. He knows the Sunday School lesson the children needed that day. And He feels the offense of a poor visitor who finally gets up enough courage to come through those doors only to find that dead bugs along the floor boards poison his worship. Rather than carelessly neglect the LORD s house or tearfully try to fix this ourselves, this is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says through an Amos contemporary named Isaiah: In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength.o people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the LORD gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, This is the way; walk in it. Then you will defile your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, Away with you! He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows. The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel. In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the LORD binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted. (Isaiah 30:15,19-26 NIV) With the hope of heaven God gives Honest priorities in heartfelt love. Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath, in Why didn t they just pick the lock on the Titanic? It looks like an easy key. Maybe the seamen thought their eyes were good enough without binoculars. Maybe someone had an extra key in his pocket but didn t know it. With a tag like Crows Nest Telephone, do you think of a binocular cabinet? The right key in the wrong lock is like pride in the wrong thing: disastrous physically and spiritually. The God who gives us every good and perfect gift from above is dead serious about how we manage His time, His talents and His money. He wants us to link this tag to the heart of Christian stewardship. He says to His own chosen people of Israel: The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: I will never forget anything they have done. Pastors and teachers who do not repent of careless preparation, or lay members who walk away from church and forget about the Lord s house and Gospel ministry have pride in themselves like an unmarked key in their pocket. Life s last icebergs lie ahead. God wants to give His blessings far beyond. He does not want to have to Humble our pride in hell. God wants all people to be saved and to come into dependable knowledge of truth. (1 Timothy 2:4 MAC) He longs to be gracious to us and to show His love in action. So what did Jesus do the night before His crucifixion? Knowing full well that Judas would betray Him, Peter would deny Him, that all but John would forsake Him, Jesus took a towel and some water and washed the very feet on which they would run away. Then He said to His disciples: I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. (John 13:15-17 NIV) He gave His hands and feet to suffer God s judgment for our sins, in order to declare with kindhearted mercy: I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. (Hebrews 8:12 NIV) He washed away the sins of pride in ourself and gave Himself as the Pride of Jacob. Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath. Take Humble pride in God. Insert the key of Honest priorities at every opportunity whether in worship together, working at your job or volunteering at church. Heartfelt love from God above brings blessings here below for Jesus sake. Amen. For the study behind this sermon or for copies m.cordes@comast.net. New Life Evangelical Lutheran Church You can also call: Hear the sermon at County Rd F - Shoreview, MN 55126

7 S#1148 Amos 8:4-7 CW 421 September 30, 2007 PENTECOST 18 Stewardship 1 of 2 Pastor Mark A. Cordes Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath In the name of Jesus, the true Pride of every believer s heart, dearly redeemed of God: So often it s the little things that make the biggest difference. For example in last Sunday s paper was a picture of an old key, tagged Crows Nest Telephone. It sold at auction in England for $181,000. Anyone know why? It was not on the ship when it set sail April 10, As a result, lookouts could not open the [binocular storage] cabinet and had to rely on their eyes alone to help guide the ship through a treacherous and ultimately deadly ice field. 1 The Titanic was sunk by an iceberg seen too late. God only knows why the key was not on board. But note how our best efforts at security, such as keeping binoculars from passengers, can actually be deadly. Likewise, a good job and honest labor are blessings from God. But so is the privilege of worship. If our attitude toward worship is bad, it can lock out the blessings of hard work. We need the key to this cabinet, so that looking through the Holy Spirit s binoculars, we can not only avoid dangerous icebergs, but see the glorious horizon of life in love with God. A loving heart is the key because Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath, first with What a shock it was for me to get an F on my last sermon at Seminary. Not an F per se, but unsatisfactory to the good professor who had watched me miss one deadline after another until he gave back my paper with a note: Rewrite. See me this afternoon. I was so busy with part-time campus ministry, building furniture and starting a family. But whatever I had planned for that afternoon was out the window while I plunked away on a borrowed typewriter and cleared my outline and written sermon with Professor Gawrisch. I assigned you a festival text, he said, so that your classmates could see how one should be written. You wrote for any given Sunday. It s obvious to me you just wanted to get it done. He was right. All that was missing from my hard work was my heart. On this first of two Stewardship Sundays, I m praying the LORD will kindly renew our hearts with His very own Honest priorities. Otherwise, I fear my most recent article in our member newsletter, New Life News, may be sadly misunderstood. Some may read with tears, then try in frustration to work harder themselves while the binoculars stay locked in the cabinet. Others may ignore the key, selfishly neglect God s house, then go away and play like the band on the sinking Titanic. Our good and gracious God who gives us our time, talents and treasure wants just one thing. God wants our hearts. Too long I ve avoided preaching this Old Testament Lesson of law from Amos, a Minor Prophet with a major message. My professor s discipline and our own stumbling efforts to manage God s gifts of church building and budget indicate how much you and I need to take these words to heart: Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat? skimping the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat. The LORD was threatening national disaster by war and bloodshed along with eternal condemnation for hard hearts. This is the Great Physician s scalpel and breastbone saw for every pastor and Sunday School teacher, every Board for Lay Ministry and congregational member whether preparing a lesson or cleaning a toilet. If all I m doing is rushing to Git er dun, then it s not the Cable Guy I need worry about. We 1 Henry Aldridge, Associated Press, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Sunday, September 23, 2007, p. 2A.

8 may not think we re stealing from the poor or cheating with dishonest scales. But the LORD sees without binoculars what should have been in every sermon. He knows the Sunday School lesson the children needed that day. And He feels the offense of a poor visitor who finally gets up enough courage to come through those doors only to find that dead bugs along the floor boards poison his worship. Rather than carelessly neglect the LORD s house or tearfully try to fix this ourselves, this is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says through an Amos contemporary named Isaiah: In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength.o people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the LORD gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, This is the way; walk in it. Then you will defile your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, Away with you! He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows. The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel. In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the LORD binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted. (Isaiah 30:15,19-26 NIV) With the hope of heaven God gives Honest priorities in heartfelt love. Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath, in Why didn t they just pick the lock on the Titanic? It looks like an easy key. Maybe the seamen thought their eyes were good enough without binoculars. Maybe someone had an extra key in his pocket but didn t know it. With a tag like Crows Nest Telephone, do you think of a binocular cabinet? The right key in the wrong lock is like pride in the wrong thing: disastrous physically and spiritually. The God who gives us every good and perfect gift from above is dead serious about how we manage His time, His talents and His money. He wants us to link this tag to the heart of Christian stewardship. He says to His own chosen people of Israel: The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: I will never forget anything they have done. Pastors and teachers who do not repent of careless preparation, or lay members who walk away from church and forget about the Lord s house and Gospel ministry have pride in themselves like an unmarked key in their pocket. Life s last icebergs lie ahead. God wants to give His blessings far beyond. He does not want to have to Humble our pride in hell. God wants all people to be saved and to come into dependable knowledge of truth. (1 Timothy 2:4 MAC) He longs to be gracious to us and to show His love in action. So what did Jesus do the night before His crucifixion? Knowing full well that Judas would betray Him, Peter would deny Him, that all but John would forsake Him, Jesus took a towel and some water and washed the very feet on which they would run away. Then He said to His disciples: I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. (John 13:15-17 NIV) He gave His hands and feet to suffer God s judgment for our sins, in order to declare with kindhearted mercy: I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. (Hebrews 8:12 NIV) He washed away the sins of pride in ourself and gave Himself as the Pride of Jacob. Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath. Take Humble pride in God. Insert the key of Honest priorities at every opportunity whether in worship together, working at your job or volunteering at church. Heartfelt love from God above brings blessings here below for Jesus sake. Amen. For the study behind this sermon or for copies m.cordes@comast.net. New Life Evangelical Lutheran Church You can also call: Hear the sermon at County Rd F - Shoreview, MN 55126

9 S#1148 Amos 8:4-7 CW 421 September 30, 2007 PENTECOST 18 Stewardship 1 of 2 Pastor Mark A. Cordes Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath In the name of Jesus, the true Pride of every believer s heart, dearly redeemed of God: So often it s the little things that make the biggest difference. For example in last Sunday s paper was a picture of an old key, tagged Crows Nest Telephone. It sold at auction in England for $181,000. Anyone know why? It was not on the ship when it set sail April 10, As a result, lookouts could not open the [binocular storage] cabinet and had to rely on their eyes alone to help guide the ship through a treacherous and ultimately deadly ice field. 1 The Titanic was sunk by an iceberg seen too late. God only knows why the key was not on board. But note how our best efforts at security, such as keeping binoculars from passengers, can actually be deadly. Likewise, a good job and honest labor are blessings from God. But so is the privilege of worship. If our attitude toward worship is bad, it can lock out the blessings of hard work. We need the key to this cabinet, so that looking through the Holy Spirit s binoculars, we can not only avoid dangerous icebergs, but see the glorious horizon of life in love with God. A loving heart is the key because Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath, first with What a shock it was for me to get an F on my last sermon at Seminary. Not an F per se, but unsatisfactory to the good professor who had watched me miss one deadline after another until he gave back my paper with a note: Rewrite. See me this afternoon. I was so busy with part-time campus ministry, building furniture and starting a family. But whatever I had planned for that afternoon was out the window while I plunked away on a borrowed typewriter and cleared my outline and written sermon with Professor Gawrisch. I assigned you a festival text, he said, so that your classmates could see how one should be written. You wrote for any given Sunday. It s obvious to me you just wanted to get it done. He was right. All that was missing from my hard work was my heart. On this first of two Stewardship Sundays, I m praying the LORD will kindly renew our hearts with His very own Honest priorities. Otherwise, I fear my most recent article in our member newsletter, New Life News, may be sadly misunderstood. Some may read with tears, then try in frustration to work harder themselves while the binoculars stay locked in the cabinet. Others may ignore the key, selfishly neglect God s house, then go away and play like the band on the sinking Titanic. Our good and gracious God who gives us our time, talents and treasure wants just one thing. God wants our hearts. Too long I ve avoided preaching this Old Testament Lesson of law from Amos, a Minor Prophet with a major message. My professor s discipline and our own stumbling efforts to manage God s gifts of church building and budget indicate how much you and I need to take these words to heart: Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat? skimping the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat. The LORD was threatening national disaster by war and bloodshed along with eternal condemnation for hard hearts. This is the Great Physician s scalpel and breastbone saw for every pastor and Sunday School teacher, every Board for Lay Ministry and congregational member whether preparing a lesson or cleaning a toilet. If all I m doing is rushing to Git er dun, then it s not the Cable Guy I need worry about. We 1 Henry Aldridge, Associated Press, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Sunday, September 23, 2007, p. 2A.

10 may not think we re stealing from the poor or cheating with dishonest scales. But the LORD sees without binoculars what should have been in every sermon. He knows the Sunday School lesson the children needed that day. And He feels the offense of a poor visitor who finally gets up enough courage to come through those doors only to find that dead bugs along the floor boards poison his worship. Rather than carelessly neglect the LORD s house or tearfully try to fix this ourselves, this is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says through an Amos contemporary named Isaiah: In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength.o people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the LORD gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, This is the way; walk in it. Then you will defile your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, Away with you! He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows. The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel. In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the LORD binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted. (Isaiah 30:15,19-26 NIV) With the hope of heaven God gives Honest priorities in heartfelt love. Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath, in Why didn t they just pick the lock on the Titanic? It looks like an easy key. Maybe the seamen thought their eyes were good enough without binoculars. Maybe someone had an extra key in his pocket but didn t know it. With a tag like Crows Nest Telephone, do you think of a binocular cabinet? The right key in the wrong lock is like pride in the wrong thing: disastrous physically and spiritually. The God who gives us every good and perfect gift from above is dead serious about how we manage His time, His talents and His money. He wants us to link this tag to the heart of Christian stewardship. He says to His own chosen people of Israel: The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: I will never forget anything they have done. Pastors and teachers who do not repent of careless preparation, or lay members who walk away from church and forget about the Lord s house and Gospel ministry have pride in themselves like an unmarked key in their pocket. Life s last icebergs lie ahead. God wants to give His blessings far beyond. He does not want to have to Humble our pride in hell. God wants all people to be saved and to come into dependable knowledge of truth. (1 Timothy 2:4 MAC) He longs to be gracious to us and to show His love in action. So what did Jesus do the night before His crucifixion? Knowing full well that Judas would betray Him, Peter would deny Him, that all but John would forsake Him, Jesus took a towel and some water and washed the very feet on which they would run away. Then He said to His disciples: I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. (John 13:15-17 NIV) He gave His hands and feet to suffer God s judgment for our sins, in order to declare with kindhearted mercy: I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. (Hebrews 8:12 NIV) He washed away the sins of pride in ourself and gave Himself as the Pride of Jacob. Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath. Take Humble pride in God. Insert the key of Honest priorities at every opportunity whether in worship together, working at your job or volunteering at church. Heartfelt love from God above brings blessings here below for Jesus sake. Amen. For the study behind this sermon or for copies m.cordes@comast.net. New Life Evangelical Lutheran Church You can also call: Hear the sermon at County Rd F - Shoreview, MN 55126

11 S#1148 Amos 8:4-7 CW 421 September 30, 2007 PENTECOST 18 Stewardship 1 of 2 Pastor Mark A. Cordes Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath In the name of Jesus, the true Pride of every believer s heart, dearly redeemed of God: So often it s the little things that make the biggest difference. For example in last Sunday s paper was a picture of an old key, tagged Crows Nest Telephone. It sold at auction in England for $181,000. Anyone know why? It was not on the ship when it set sail April 10, As a result, lookouts could not open the [binocular storage] cabinet and had to rely on their eyes alone to help guide the ship through a treacherous and ultimately deadly ice field. 1 The Titanic was sunk by an iceberg seen too late. God only knows why the key was not on board. But note how our best efforts at security, such as keeping binoculars from passengers, can actually be deadly. Likewise, a good job and honest labor are blessings from God. But so is the privilege of worship. If our attitude toward worship is bad, it can lock out the blessings of hard work. We need the key to this cabinet, so that looking through the Holy Spirit s binoculars, we can not only avoid dangerous icebergs, but see the glorious horizon of life in love with God. A loving heart is the key because Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath, first with What a shock it was for me to get an F on my last sermon at Seminary. Not an F per se, but unsatisfactory to the good professor who had watched me miss one deadline after another until he gave back my paper with a note: Rewrite. See me this afternoon. I was so busy with part-time campus ministry, building furniture and starting a family. But whatever I had planned for that afternoon was out the window while I plunked away on a borrowed typewriter and cleared my outline and written sermon with Professor Gawrisch. I assigned you a festival text, he said, so that your classmates could see how one should be written. You wrote for any given Sunday. It s obvious to me you just wanted to get it done. He was right. All that was missing from my hard work was my heart. On this first of two Stewardship Sundays, I m praying the LORD will kindly renew our hearts with His very own Honest priorities. Otherwise, I fear my most recent article in our member newsletter, New Life News, may be sadly misunderstood. Some may read with tears, then try in frustration to work harder themselves while the binoculars stay locked in the cabinet. Others may ignore the key, selfishly neglect God s house, then go away and play like the band on the sinking Titanic. Our good and gracious God who gives us our time, talents and treasure wants just one thing. God wants our hearts. Too long I ve avoided preaching this Old Testament Lesson of law from Amos, a Minor Prophet with a major message. My professor s discipline and our own stumbling efforts to manage God s gifts of church building and budget indicate how much you and I need to take these words to heart: Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat? skimping the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat. The LORD was threatening national disaster by war and bloodshed along with eternal condemnation for hard hearts. This is the Great Physician s scalpel and breastbone saw for every pastor and Sunday School teacher, every Board for Lay Ministry and congregational member whether preparing a lesson or cleaning a toilet. If all I m doing is rushing to Git er dun, then it s not the Cable Guy I need worry about. We 1 Henry Aldridge, Associated Press, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Sunday, September 23, 2007, p. 2A.

12 may not think we re stealing from the poor or cheating with dishonest scales. But the LORD sees without binoculars what should have been in every sermon. He knows the Sunday School lesson the children needed that day. And He feels the offense of a poor visitor who finally gets up enough courage to come through those doors only to find that dead bugs along the floor boards poison his worship. Rather than carelessly neglect the LORD s house or tearfully try to fix this ourselves, this is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says through an Amos contemporary named Isaiah: In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength.o people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the LORD gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, This is the way; walk in it. Then you will defile your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, Away with you! He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows. The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel. In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the LORD binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted. (Isaiah 30:15,19-26 NIV) With the hope of heaven God gives Honest priorities in heartfelt love. Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath, in Why didn t they just pick the lock on the Titanic? It looks like an easy key. Maybe the seamen thought their eyes were good enough without binoculars. Maybe someone had an extra key in his pocket but didn t know it. With a tag like Crows Nest Telephone, do you think of a binocular cabinet? The right key in the wrong lock is like pride in the wrong thing: disastrous physically and spiritually. The God who gives us every good and perfect gift from above is dead serious about how we manage His time, His talents and His money. He wants us to link this tag to the heart of Christian stewardship. He says to His own chosen people of Israel: The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: I will never forget anything they have done. Pastors and teachers who do not repent of careless preparation, or lay members who walk away from church and forget about the Lord s house and Gospel ministry have pride in themselves like an unmarked key in their pocket. Life s last icebergs lie ahead. God wants to give His blessings far beyond. He does not want to have to Humble our pride in hell. God wants all people to be saved and to come into dependable knowledge of truth. (1 Timothy 2:4 MAC) He longs to be gracious to us and to show His love in action. So what did Jesus do the night before His crucifixion? Knowing full well that Judas would betray Him, Peter would deny Him, that all but John would forsake Him, Jesus took a towel and some water and washed the very feet on which they would run away. Then He said to His disciples: I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. (John 13:15-17 NIV) He gave His hands and feet to suffer God s judgment for our sins, in order to declare with kindhearted mercy: I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. (Hebrews 8:12 NIV) He washed away the sins of pride in ourself and gave Himself as the Pride of Jacob. Good Stewards, Love the LORD s Sabbath. Take Humble pride in God. Insert the key of Honest priorities at every opportunity whether in worship together, working at your job or volunteering at church. Heartfelt love from God above brings blessings here below for Jesus sake. Amen. For the study behind this sermon or for copies m.cordes@comast.net. New Life Evangelical Lutheran Church You can also call: Hear the sermon at County Rd F - Shoreview, MN 55126